CARES Act Funding with Newhouse Pt 1
I’m Bob Larson. U.S. Representative Dan Newhouse is doing his part in leading the call for the USDA to support specialty crop producers with CARES Act relief funding.
He joins a bipartisan crew in asking for proportional aid to our specialty crop growers impacted by the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic …
NEWHOUSE … “Well, I was able to participate on a conference call this morning with Ag Secretary Sonny Perdue. And, certainly, they’re listening to all the different commodity organizations to try to determine what would be most beneficial for each commodity group.”
But, Newhouse says Perdue has some latitude when it comes to decisions …
NEWHOUSE … “There’s a lot of leeway that the Secretary’s been given through the CARES Act and how he responds with the money that was allocated in that legislation. And so, it remains to be seen how he responds and so that’s why he’s garnering as much input as possible from the industry.”
So, it remains to be seen? …
NEWHOUSE … “I guess you termed it as ‘it remains to be seen” and there’s some truth to that, but there has been a lot of resources put into different agricultural programs and the Secretary is doing his best to determine how to distribute that so that it does the most good.”
Newhouse says he’s confident Secretary Perdue will take everything he hears from the different groups into account before making any decision.
Tune in tomorrow for more on the CARES Act and if it contains enough money to do the job.
